Residents pursue legal action against TIRZ 17

A group of Memorial City residents who say their homes are flooding with increasing frequency are looking to bring legal action against TIRZ 17, the Memorial City Redevelopment Authority.

Members of the Memorial City District Drainage Coalition voted last week at their annual meeting to begin preliminary work on a lawsuit after hearing a presentation from environmental lawyer Jim Blackburn.

Blackburn laid out in general terms the legal principles he thinks are in play with such a case and how he might proceed.

He said he didn’t want to make money from any contingency, but would rather spur TIRZ to action to help mitigate damage that its projects might have caused.

“This is something that bothers me,” said Blackburn. “If you don’t stand up and fight, then you’ll be taken advantage of.”

Still, Blackburn asked for a commitment from residents — a financial commitment. To get a set of pleadings ready to be filed will cost $25,000, money that residents will have to raise.

And if the case goes to litigation, residents can expect to pay upward of $200,000, he said.

“It’s not a pro bono case,” he said. “You need the ‘want to.’”

MCDDC President Ed Browne said that the group has raised about $15,000 during the two years of its existence and acknowledged that raising even that amount was difficult.

But the group had checks for $7,000 and pledges for several thousand dollars more before the March 2 meeting ended. Along with $5,000 still on account, that brings the total to slightly more than half of what it needs to proceed.

Most of the money already spent by MCDDC went toward a study of the area by hydrologist Larry Dunbar, which found areas flooding that weren’t marked on any floodplain maps and inadequate drainage installed on several mobility projects.

The Memorial City area has seen a flurry of development and redevelopment in recent years, including the expansion of I-10, and has seen a subsequent rise in the number of residents reporting their homes flooded, many who say they’ve never flooded before.

Blackburn said every drainage study in the area has recommended more detention ponds — areas that hold stormwater out of the drainage system until the system is able to handle it, and that TIRZ 17 actions — and more specifically, its inaction to build detention ponds — have “at least contributed to, if not caused,” flooding problems in the area.

TIRZ 17 commissioned a $500,000 regional drainage study last year, a study whose scope went outside the TIRZ boundaries and that encouraged regional solutions to drainage. It also identified potential projects that it can pursue both by itself and with other governmental entities.

He said TIRZ 17 is considering a number of projects from the regional drainage study.

“The TIRZ can’t do it alone,” said Walters. “We need to work in concert with other governmental entities.” Those entities include the cities of Houston, Hedwig Village and Bunker Hill , and Harris County.

“(Drainage) is a large problem that will take all of us working together,” said Walters.

Contracts dating back to 1999 relating to the creation of Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone 17 spell out drainage projects first in general then in more specific detail.

In a tax increment reinvestment zone, property taxes are frozen at a certain level, with any tax collected above that level — the increment — going into the TIRZ for reinvestment. A TIRZ can also leverage actual and anticipated increment to borrow money for projects.

The idea is that the investment in infrastructure in a TIRZ area will increase property values and thus increment.

The 2003 contract calls for four detention ponds to be built — two north of I-10 and two south of I-10 — detention that never came about.

According to city of Houston figures, of nearly $18.5 million spent by TIRZ 17 since its inception, only about $5 million has been spent on drainage projects, while $13.5 has been spent on mobility. Houston City Council approves a TIRZ’s budget, capital improvement (project) plan, and appoints board members.

TIRZ 17 has said that the contract language was essentially boilerplate and represented potential, not actual, projects.

TIRZ 17 was created to last 30 years, expecting to raise and spend $70 million on mobility and drainage projects.

Contributions to the MCDDC fund can be made payable to Spring Branch West Super Neighborhood, with "MCDDC Escrow" on the memo line and mailed to MCDDC, P. O. Box 430574, Houston Texas 77243-0574.